NEW CUSTODY STRIFE IN 'CRACK KID' SAGA

Prince Isaiah Weems was a crack baby snatched from a life of tragedy
by a loving foster mother who almost lost him to a bureaucratic
foul-up 15 years ago -- and now stands to lose him for good.

Born with syphilis and HIV to a homeless woman in Harlem during the
height of the crack-cocaine epidemic, Isaiah was taken in by Deborah
Weems at 18 months.

For 14 years, the Queens rap-music promoter moved heaven and earth to
give her developmentally delayed child a stable home and a good
education while nursing him though the afflictions common to thousands
like him.

Until age 4, Isaiah couldn't walk, his mind unable to control his
legs. Until age 12, he was plagued with nightmares, often waking up
screaming.

Perhaps more disturbing, when the boy was 2, she and then-husband
Richard McKeown learned that he wasn't listed as a foster child in the
city's computer system. So the Child Welfare Administration told them
he'd be placed back in Hale House, where his drug-addicted mother --
who'd soon die of AIDS -- had dumped him.

"They'll have to put me in jail first," Deborah said at the
time.

Thanks to a front-page story in The Post, CWA allowed the kid to stay
put.

That was 1990. Now Deborah is losing Isaiah again. But Isaiah, who ran
away from home in Miami six weeks ago to live with Richard in New
York, says he hopes never to return to his adoptive mom.

Meanwhile, Richard, who never legally adopted Isaiah, says his ex's
crusade to save the boy "is all about money and control."

The family will plead its case tomorrow in Queens Family
Court.

Its troubles began a year after Deborah, now 45, and Richard, now 46,
took Isaiah. Richard moved out on his wife, leaving Isaiah and
William, the biological son he'd had with Deborah.

He never paid child support for Isaiah, now 16, though he did for
William, now 17. That, he says, is because Deborah gets state money
for Isaiah, about $900 a month. He also says he was a good father who
visited the boys regularly.

Deborah claims he abandoned them and stole $40,000 from
her.

When the couple divorced in 1994, Richard gave up custody of William,
and Deborah had the boy's name changed to Prince William.

Aware of the problems faced by crack kids, she then enrolled Isaiah in
special-ed classes at PS 193. But by the second grade, he'd
miraculously gotten better. His HIV and syphilis, doctors said, were
gone, and his behavior was pretty normal. So into regular classes he
went.

Four years later, however, Deborah says, he started getting into
trouble, bringing a knife to school and starting a fire on a school
bus. She asked the school to put him back in special ed.

But Isaiah says he has no special needs. "Yes, I brought a knife to
school, but my mother gave it to me," he told The Post.

When the school declined Deborah's request, she enrolled both sons in
military school in Georgia. Though he made the honor roll, Isaiah was
expelled for poor conduct after two years.

By then, Deborah had moved to Miami, to be closer to her boys and give
them a better life, she says. Once again, Isaiah says differently: "I
hated it. She made me sleep in a closet, chased away my friends and
told people I was gay."

A few months after enrolling in public school, Isaiah began playing
hooky and smoking pot, says Deborah. So she began looking for a
special-needs school.

That was the last straw for Isaiah. On Valentine's Day, he fled. "I
emancipated myself, which you can do in Florida at 16," he said.

For 10 days, Deborah searched frantically for him, before learning
that he'd gone to Richard's home in Jamaica, Queens.

Meanwhile, her ex-husband filed a petition for custody of Isaiah on
the grounds that Deborah had kicked her son out of the house.

"I'm much happier here," Isaiah said. "I have no more love for my
mom."